


Matching More Than Jackets

by ByTheAngell (SomeLittleInfamy)



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alcohol, Banter, Feels, Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:41:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23427913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomeLittleInfamy/pseuds/ByTheAngell
Summary: Jace and Meliorn start working together more and more often... and when Jace has something on his mind, perhaps a few bottles of wine will give him the courage to ask, and get him an honest answer in return.
Relationships: Meliorn/Jace Wayland
Comments: 20
Kudos: 78
Collections: Hunter's Moon Fic Recs, SHBingo





	Matching More Than Jackets

**Author's Note:**

> For my Shadowhunters Bingo square: Seelie Drinking Games

Ever since the Downworld Councils took off in the Shadow World, the amount of overlap in Shadowhunter and Downworlder aid in things they used to keep separated - things like tracking demonic activity and taking down nests - increases dramatically. Jace and Meliorn in particular seem to be paired up more and more often since their shared bond over the Alliance Rune left the two of them more in sync with one another than they would be with anyone else. Even if that isn’t the case, it really isn’t any surprise Alec keeps teaming them up given the results they get every time they go on a mission together. Plus, not many of the other Downworlders seem to be able to put up with Jace. Their loss. 

This past week in particular was a challenge, involving an attempted stake-out in a forest that seemed to be laden with booby-traps all involving vines which would move to snake around ankles if you stood still too long, or animals with poisonous venom particularly inclined to attack without being provoked. It didn’t take long after Jace went out alone the first time for him to turn back around and request a Seelie to accompany him instead, someone who could just as easily manipulate the nature around him to _not_ attempt to kill him every two seconds. 

He doesn’t specify which Seelie. He’s hoping for Meliorn, but understands if the Seelie doesn’t want anything to do with Jace or his missions at this point… not after after the last one they went on, which included a fuck-up so spectacular Jace doesn’t even want to think about it. 

Except Meliorn is exactly who shows up, and Jace is equal parts surprised and immensely relieved. 

“At this point you might as well get me a matching leather jacket, Herondale,” Meliorn teases, but Jace only rolls his eyes. 

“Maybe if you get me to the middle of this forest I’ll have one custom made for you,” Jace counters. 

There’s a group of warlocks planning to try and summon a Greater Demon. _Try_ being the key word here, because Jace doesn’t plan on allowing them to succeed. Just like Jace hoped, Meliorn’s connection to nature overpowers the spells put in place by the warlocks every single time. Jace wants to help but all of the ways he has to ‘help’ the situation harm the plants or animals - he could cut aside his share of vines, or catch a few of the snakes that lunge at them with teeth bared, but Meliorn insists they do this in a way that leaves as much of the nature unharmed as possible. Jace always thought that was just some power play the Seelie Queen liked to be obnoxious about just to annoy them, but as it turns out, it’s a pretty serious thing for all of them. So Jace stands back for the first time in his entire Shadowhunting career and allows Meliorn to do almost all of the work until they reach the first of the warlocks. 

From there on it’s all Jace, with his weapons and runes and magic-dampening handcuffs to catch what end up being three young warlocks entirely off-guard, taking them back to the Institute to hold overnight for processing. While Jace finishes up the paperwork to tie everything up with a neat little bow, Meliorn leaves and comes back with a bottle in hand. 

“How is the… how did you put it? _Bureaucratic bullshit_?... coming along?” 

“Just finished,” Jace announces, closing the folder in front of him. He knows what Meliorn is about to offer because this has become an unspoken _thing_ for them, for Meliorn to show up with drinks after a mission and end up having to drag Jace down the hallways to his bed at the Institute before he passes out in a hallway, but not before incriminating himself at least half a dozen times in the process. Business as usual. 

“Just in time for a celebratory drink, then. After that outing I believe we both earned one,” Meliorn says, holding up the bottle of Seelie wine in his hand. 

Everyone in the Shadow World knows not to trust Seelie drinks. That caution goes double for alcohol, and triple for the wine. It affects everyone differently, and to varying strengths, though it almost always has the underlying effect of mild truth serum. 

What everyone doesn’t know, and what Jace stumbled upon entirely on accident one night after mixing up two bottles at a party, is that Seelies are particularly susceptible to mundane wines. It’s a curious little piece of information he doesn’t immediately share or exploit, saving it for the perfect time. 

And the perfect time, it seems, is now. For all the banter the two of them share, Meliorn is always so infuriatingly on guard and in control. Jace wants to see him unwind - _really_ unwind - just once. 

“Sure,” Jace agrees easily, with a slow smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. “But I was thinking this time we even the playing field.” 

Jace goes to the corner of the office and pulls out a bottle of deep red wine, watching the briefest flicker of surprise cross Meliorn’s face at the gesture. 

“What?” Jace asks, eyebrow raised. “You think it’s fun to keep getting me drunk after our missions so I tell you all my secrets, but I can’t do the same?” 

“If you think a little mundane wine is going to get me to spill my secrets to you, Jace Herondale, you’re not giving me enough credit,” Meliorn says, but Jace can tell by the way he’s carefully eyeing the bottle in Jace’s hand that he’s bluffing. 

“Then prove it.” 

Jace pours a glass and hands it to Meliorn, who sighs lightly before taking a sip. 

“Oh,” Meliorn says, eyes wide with surprise. “That’s not half bad.” 

“I sprung for the good stuff,” Jace says, not bothering to clarify that only means he grabbed the oldest one there. All of the alcohol in here is leftover from Alec’s old stash, and Alec mostly had it for guests and Magnus, so of course it was the good stuff. He pours himself a glass of the Seelie wine, and they both sit down to enjoy. 

They fall into their usual routine then, except that after a few glasses Meliorn is much more talkative than usual. He’s also laughing more, and once or twice when their feet meet under the table or their hands brush, Meliorn allows the touch to linger. Jace tries not to read too much into it, then tries even harder not to think about how much he doesn’t mind. 

Finally, Jace works up the courage to ask the question that’s been on the back of his mind since their last mission. 

“Why did you save me?” Jace blurts out, the words only slightly slurred. 

“Why wouldn’t I save you?” Meliorn counters. 

“No,” Jace insists. “Don’t do that thing where you turn everything back into a question to mess with my head. The last time you got stuck with me, with that ravener demon - I was a fucking asshole and I didn’t listen to you and you should’ve just let it get me.” 

“Jace-” 

“You shouldn’t have gotten yourself hurt just to save me when it was my fault we were in that mess to begin with,” Jace rushes on. “You’re like, the king of self-preservation and rational decisions. So why did you jump in front of it like that to save me?” 

Meliorn frowns. “Do you really think so little of yourself,” he asks, but it’s different from the evasion before. Softer. “That you don’t think you’re worth saving?” 

“I don’t want to die if that’s what you’re asking,” Jace says. 

“You could fool me sometimes,” Meliorn mutters, the words slow and slurred, but not as bad as they should be for the amount of wine he drank. He clears his throat. “What I mean to say is, that’s good. Because I don’t want you to die.” 

Jace isn’t expecting that answer. 

“Why?” Jace asks again. 

“ ‘Why?’ ‘Why?’ - you’re worse than a mundane child, honestly,” Meliorn sighs. “Because I _like_ you, against all of my better judgment. That’s why.” 

Meliorn doesn’t seem at all embarrassed by the admission, but it makes Jace flush in his cheeks up to his ears, a redness he hopes he can play off from the alcohol. 

“... _why?!”_ Jace manages, only realizing what he said after he said it and clasping a hand over his mouth. “Sorry. I wasn’t saying it to be an asshole, I swear.” 

Meliorn laughs. “For someone who seems pretty used to being the center of attention, I’m surprised you don’t simply expect _everyone_ to like you.” 

“Well, sure, people like me at parties and stuff. But they don’t like me enough to nearly die for me,” Jace clarifies. 

“Now you’re just being dramatic, I didn’t nearly die. That was _you,_ remember?” Meliorn hides his teasing smirk behind his glass as he drains it of the last of his wine, which also happens to be the last of his bottle. 

They sit in silence after that, Jace busying himself with the last of his own bottle to buy himself time to think. 

“For what it’s worth, I’d nearly die for you, too,” Jace finally admits. 

“You really can’t bring yourself to say you like me, can you? And to think, we could’ve had matching jackets.” 

Jace rolls his eyes, and for the first time in a long while feels like maybe he has something worth being a little vulnerable for. 

“I like you, too,” he says, and goes to stand up - or at least, that’s the plan, if the wine didn’t hit him all at once and send him swaying to the side and back down into the table to catch himself. Meliorn is up and by his side in an instant, slinging Jace’s arm over his shoulder. 

“Alright, time to get you to bed,” Meliorn says, and Jace’s brows furrow. 

“How am I _still_ the drunk one,” Jace whines. 

“Because I switched the bottles halfway through while you weren’t paying attention,” Meliorn admits. 

Jace wants to be mad, but he can’t quite bring himself to do more than half-heartedly glare at Meliorn, especially as the knowledge registers that Meliorn’s confession, and the touches, and how much he laughed and genuinely seemed to enjoy himself tonight, wasn’t just because of the alcohol. 

“You know, it _is_ late. You could stay the night, if you wanted,” Jace offers when they get back to his room. 

Meliorn shakes his head. “Unfortunately I’m expected back at the Court-” Jace’s heart sinks until Meliorn continues, “-but next time I’ll plan for it.” 

Jace grins like a wine-tipsy idiot from his bed. “Next time,” Jace agrees. 

He likes the sound of that.

(The next time Meliorn shows up to the Institute it isn’t because there’s a mission: it’s because Jace has a matching leather jacket for him, custom-embroidered with the leaf and vine patterns that travel the length of Meliorn’s face and neck. And later that night when Meliorn does stay over, true to his word, Jace discovers that isn’t the _only_ place the tattoos are.) 

**Author's Note:**

> (Find me on [Tumblr](http://bytheangell.tumblr.com) and also on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/By_The_Angell)! <3 )


End file.
